Telecom probe identifies officials responsible

An investigator probing India's allotment of telecom licences and spectrum said he has identified government officials responsible for lapses in the allocation process and suggested remedial measures.

"We have identified the officials on whose part either there was deficiency or violation or lapse," former Supreme Court judge Shivaraj Patil said.

Indian Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said his ministry would study the report and decide what action needs to be taken.

The former judge was investigating shortcomings and lapses in the 2G licensingprocess after a government audit in November said the Indian government had awarded licences too cheaply in some cases, possibly costing the state $39 billion in revenue.

HCL Infosystems bags Rs.250 crore BSNL order

HCL Infosystems Ltd. Monday said it has bagged a Rs.250 crore project from state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) for deploying facilities to manage the telecom operator's billing system and upgrade the existing infrastructure for higher efficiency.

"In the rapidly emerging space of telecom, we have developed a host of system integration solutions and this project win only speaks for our understanding and expertise," HCL Infosystem's president and chief operating officer J.V. Ramamurthy said in a statement.

"We are excited to have got this opportunity and look forward to further expand our areas of operation through more and more solutions added to our offerings," he added.

The company will manage BSNL's billing system process for north and west zone for a period of seven years. HCL Infosystems will also be setting up the facility equipped with sophisticated printing solutions for transactional output with the most advanced hardware and software solutions.

The project will entail a complete transformation and automation of BSNL's bill printing mechanism, thereby adding greater efficiency in reaching out to its subscribers, the statement said.

At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the shares of the company were up 3.21 per cent to trade at Rs.109.40. 

India insists RIM for corporate email access

India will still insist that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motiongive it a solution to access corporate email services, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said on Monday.

RIM said this month it had given India the means to access its Messenger serviceahead of a Jan. 31 target date but reiterated that no changes could be made to allow monitoring of secure corporate emails.

"... as I said, like they gave us a solution to Messenger service, we will insist they will give us a solution for enterprise service too," Chidambaram told reporters.

India has demanded access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet and through telephone communications.

ISRO to launch remote sensing Resourcesat

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready to launch Resourcesat 2, a remote sensing earth observation satellite, by the end of February, officials said Monday.

Remote sensing satellites send back pictures and other data for various uses. India is a major player in providing such data in the global market.

The Resourcesat-2 will replace Resourcesat-1 launched in 2003, which has outlived its original mission life of five years.

According to ISRO officials, the satellite has reached the Sriharikota rocket launch centre around 80 km from Chennai and tests are being conducted.

The satellites will be carried by the ISRO's polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV). The launch will be between Feb 20-25 in the morning.

The PSLV will also be carrying two other small satellites made in Singapore and Russia.

With nine orbiting satellites and the tenth one to join in February, India has the largest number of remote sensing satellites in the world providing imageries in a variety of spatial resolutions.

The remote sensing satellites currently operational are: Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-2B, Oceansat-2, RISAT-2, Cartosat-2A, IMS-1, Cartosat-2, Resourcesat-1 and TES.

For some time Resourcesat-2 and Resourcesat-1 will work together before the later is fully replaced, the official said.

Compared to Resourcesat-1, the multispectral swath of Resourcesat-2 has been enhanced from 23 km to 70 km based on user needs.

Suitable changes, including miniaturisation in payload electronics, have been incorporated in Resourcesat-2, said the official.

IBM to kick start 100th year celebration in B'lore

If you are an IBMer and planning to quit job before June 16 , think twice.

Technology giant IBM on Monday said it will give $1,000 worth of shares to its over one lakh employees in India as part of its centennial celebration. The celebrations would kick start from Bangalore

The company would celebrate a hundred years of existence on June 16 this year, will give each of its employees globally a $1,000 stock bonus.

"IBM employees globally, except those at the executive level, will receive $1,000 in stock bonuses," quoted PTI, an IBM India spokesperson as saying.

He, however, declined to comment on IBM's India headcount, since the company does not disclose country-level employee numbers.

However, industry analysts peg the strength of the company's India-based workforce at over one lakh. IBM has four lakh employees globally.

"The company is still working on the eligibility criteria for the bonus. However, one of the criteria is that the person has to be an employee (full-timers and part-timers included) of IBM or its wholly-owned subsidiaries before December 31, 2010," he said.

Also, since these stock incentives will not vest until 2015, anybody quitting the company before June 16, 2015, will no longer be eligible to receive shares.

As per media reports, Sam Palmisano , chairman of IBM said that all employees across the globe will receive the perk except for the top executives.

IBM reported revenues of about $100 billion and record free cash flow of $16.3 billion in 2010.

The report also mentioned that IBM chief Sam Palmisano would address the company employees in Bangalore on February 9 as part of its hundredth year celebration.

Siemens to pay $1.4 bn to up stake in Indian arm

Siemens AG will spend about 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) to raise its stake in its booming Indian subsidiary Siemens Ltd, it said on Monday.

Siemens said in a statement on Monday it planned to raise its stake to 75 per cent from about 55 per cent, offering 930 rupees per share or a 28 per cent premium to Friday's closing price.

"Siemens is expanding its stake with the aim of further developing its business in India," the statement said.

The offer sent Siemens Ltd shares up by more than 18 per cent to 867 rupees by 0832 GMT. Siemens shares fell 0.4 per cent amid a 0.8 per cent drop in the blue chip Dax index.

The conglomerate is enjoying strong growth in business in emerging markets, with new orders from India alone up 160 per cent in the latest quarter, boosted by infrastructure and power technology demand.

Siemens Ltd India had revenue of around 1.5 billion euros and profit from operations of around 200 million in 2010.

The move follows that of Swiss rival ABB Ltd, which last year raised its holding in its Indian subsidiary to 75 percent, paying $1 billion for the stake.

Siemens said that pending regulatory approval, the offer is expected to open on March 25 and close on April 13.

HSBC Securities and Capital Markets will manager the offer, the statement said.

ATM trickster arrested

A man who cheated people using ATMs by withdrawing money from their cards on the pretext of "securely locking their accounts" has been arrested, police said Monday.

Paras Luthra, 30, was present in an ATM centre in Adarsh Nagar in west Delhi. A couple after completing the transaction was on their way out when Luthra warned them that they had not locked their account properly.

"He convinced them to insert their ATM card repeatedly and enter the password for locking the account successfully. In the process, he swapped their card with another similar card," a police official said, adding Luthra also managed to withdraw the maximum cash from their account from an adjacent machine in the confusion.

However, the wife noticed a difference in the signature on the card returned to them by Luthra and pointed it out. Luthra then tried to flee from the spot but was caught by the couple with the help of some local residents and handed over to police.

"During interrogation, the accused confessed that he cheated various people in the same fashion in that area. He further disclosed that he had cheated two persons of Rs.2.07 lakh and Rs.1.6 lakh recently," said the official.

According to police, Luthra wore dark clothes and a cap in order to evade the closed circuit television cameras.

"The police have recovered ATM cards of various banks and a Honda City car from the accused. The source of acquiring the Honda City car is being verified. Four cases have been registered against Luthra," added the official.

Technopark to get seed funding from union ministry

Technopark's Technology Business Incubation (T-TBI) Monday signed an agreement with the technology development board of the union ministry of science and technology for a Rs.1 crore seed funding assistance.

This is the first time the board has selected T-TBI for the assistance, an official said. The funding is for a period of three years.

Technology Business Incubation aims at identifying potential entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, nurture them through different phases of growth, until the business takes off to a maturity level, where it becomes a financially sustainable venture.

The grant will enable T-TBI to seed fund for at least ten companies which lack funding support from other sources.

"This is a very important and necessary support for the student start ups in the state to get start up risk capital assistance in their early stage of company formation," said Mervin Alexander, chief executive officer of Technopark.

Presently there are 47 companies operating from the T-TBI here, which includes a few engineering colleges where bright young students are engaged in projects.

K.C. Chandrashekharan Nair, secretary and registrar of T-TBI said 50 companies that have already graduated from the TBI have scaled up their operation in Technopark Phase I campus, which employs more than 3,000 professionals with a total investment of about Rs.130 crore.

"The approximate turnover of the companies will be around Rs.150 crore and their contribution to the government exchequer will be around Rs.30 crore. This TDB seed support will enable the companies to grow further and contribute more to the economic development of the state," said Nair.

India demands full BlackBerry access

India rejected on Monday Research In Motion's (RIM) offer to allow it only partial access to its BlackBerry data services as neighbouring Pakistan also moved to restrict the popular smartphone's services.

It was not immediately clear what the Indian government, which says it is driven by security concerns, would now do after the Canadian smartphone maker failed to fulfill demands to monitor encrypted corporate email by a Jan. 31 deadline. RIM had previously said was confident India would not ban its services.

Earlier this month, RIM said it had given India the means to access its Messenger service ahead of the deadline but reiterated that it could not give the authorities access to monitor secure corporate emails.

Home (Interior) Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told a news conference the government still wanted access to emails.

"I think a decision will be taken today by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs)," Chidambaram added. RIM's India-based spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Last year, India demanded access to all BlackBerry services as part of efforts to fight militancy and security threats over the Internet and through telephone communications, demands echoed by several other countries that have also tried, sometimes successfully, to restrict the popular smartphone.

On Monday, India's neighbour Pakistan called on mobile phone operators to stop BlackBerry services to foreign missions amid concern about the security of the communications, industry sources said.

RIM encrypts email messages as they travel between a BlackBerry device and a computer known as BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The Canadian smartphone maker has said that it does not have a master key to decode emails, adding that each organisation would have the technical capability to grant access to its own encrypted enterprise email.

RIM said this month it would filter pornographic Internet content for BlackBerry users in Indonesia, following government pressure to restrict access to porn sites or face its browsing service being shut down.

Last year, the company narrowly escaped a ban in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Neither side disclosed what RIM did to get itself onside with UAE telecom regulations.

Google ties up with Bharti Foundation

Google and Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, today jointly announced an initiative to support the Satya Bharti schools, run by the Bharti Foundation. 

As part of the agreement, Google will provide financial support of $5 million to upgrade and support 50 elementary schools run by the Bharti Foundation in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These schools will be named as Satya Elementary schools, said a press release.

Bharti Foundation provides education to underprivileged children in rural areas. Its flagship initiative, the Satya Bharti School Program, reaches out to over 30,000 children, with particular focus on the girl child, from socially and economically challenged backgrounds. 

The Foundation offers them access to free education through 236 village primary schools and one senior secondary school. Going forward an additional 15 primary and 4 senior secondary schools are scheduled to be opened in the next academic year.

It will provide financial support to set up middle schools (classes VI -VIII) as well as help meet operational expenses to upgrade primary schools to elementary level. 

Once completed, this initiative will help upgrade 50 primary schools to elementary levels and will reach over 15,000 children.  In addition, at full capacity this will provide employment and skill training to over 500 teachers.

Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice chairman and managing director – Bharti Enterprises said, “Bharti Foundation has a vision of ‘empowering rural India’ through the educational initiatives of the Bharti Foundation. The financial support received from Google will further allow the Foundation to scale up the existing Satya Bharti School program from primary to elementary level and take education in rural India to the next level.”

He added that they are confident that this partnership will help ready the underprivileged children of today as employable and responsible citizens of tomorrow.

Nikesh Arora, chief business officer, Google added, “Google is committed to doing good. We have a strong presence in India and have benefited from the enormous talent in engineering and science in this country.  We are delighted to support Bharti Foundation’s initiative to spread education and empower India’s next generation.”

Google’s grant to Bharti Foundation is part of its global philanthropic outreach. Google provided more than $145 million to non-profits and academic institutions in 2010, and more than $184 million in total giving when including Google Grants, Google.org technology projects and product support for non-profits.

Google has four centres in India: Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai. India forms a key part of Google’s strategy of operating as a globally integrated company, the release added.

SC: Won't cancel 2G licences for CAG report

The Supreme Court today said CAG report cannot be the only basis for the cancellation of licenses and whatever steps the central government takes for regularising 2G spectrum licences of firms which failed to fulfill their rollout obligations would be subject to the final outcome of the petition that has challenged the allocation in 2008 at 2001 prices.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly said: "We do not know if they (central government) have done anything. But anything they would do would be subject to the final outcome of the petition."

The court said this when senior counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, sought interim order of the court restraining the telecom ministry from imposing the penalties on telecom operators in order to bail them out of their failure to fulfill the licence and rollout obligations.

The court directed the central government and telecom operators to file their replies within three weeks and rejoinder to these replies within a week.

The court's direction came during the hearing of a petition that sought cancellation of licences to all telecom companies which were granted 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices.

The case will come up for hearing March 1.

Salesforce's Chatter.com now open to all

Salesforce.com, the cloud based CRM application provider has now decided to lift the usage limitation of Chatter beyond its registered customers.

According to Robin Daniels, Salesforce.com's director, product marketing, Chatter.com, the free private social networking application for businesses will be launched globally on Monday.

“Chatter application was introduced to our customers around June last year and during this six months about more than 60,000 customers worldwide are using it for their businesses,” Daniels told CyberMedia News.

He added that real-time connectivity and information sharing for enterprise software applications like Facebook is very important for business productivity as it helps information sharing and collaboration for businesses in real time.  

“Chatter.com help business users to share/collaborate videos, files, photos and presentations in real-time and doesn't require downloading or applications for viewing those files or videos as the content is  available on cloud, which makes information sharing and file transfers easy,” Daniels explained.

He informed that Chatter.com will work as a social platform in future for software developers to build apps on Salesforce.com.

It has Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter like features including profiles, status updates, groups, document sharing, application updates, feeds, security and sharing model for sensitive information and appExchange, that allows Chatter.com features to get added to other applications of Salesforce.com.  

On information sharing and security feature of Chatter.com Daniels stressed, “Chatter.com runs on the same servers, data centers and IT infrastructure as Salesforce's CRM application that is used by large  number of customers, which is highly secured, trusted and tested.”

Beside the free version, Chatter plus, the upgraded version offers more CRM based features to help the users to track their businesses. However, to use this application, the non-customers of Salesforce will require private email domains for security and network integrity issue.

Chatter application is also available for smart phones and mobile devices like iPhone,BlackBerry and iPad and in coming few weeks it will be available for Android based mobile phones.    

Prakat builds testing crowd on cloud

In the world of testing, outsourced testing might be new term, but 'crowd-sourcing people for independent testing on cloud', might take aback. Furthermore employing the qualified along with physically disabled to perform software testing should sound out of place.

Prakat Solutions is cloud based independent software testing (IST) service provider is already taking strides in this front. This Bangalore-based start-up is building a network of qualified testers to perform independent testing over the cloud and aims at a team of 10,000 testers in the coming years.

At present, the company has got an internal team of more than 20 testers that serve a handful of clients, while it is building up the network for crowd- testing. The crowd will include students, retired professionals, and people on sabbatical.

The founder and CEO of company, Anuradha Biswas, who has been an evangelist for independent testing for more than 18 years, believes that the combination of cloud-testing, with crowd-sourcing will brings the benefit of cost-arbitrage, domain knowledge and high availability to the customers.

According to Anuradha, the company is working towards building more than crowd of 3000 by 2012.This would include newly trained students and housewives along with team of professionals to work as projects as team leads. While majority of the projects are taken care by the internal team, she expects that the building crowd would soon be able to take the projects up and would soon equally contribute to company's revenue.

Prakat recently partnered with Mitra Jyothi, an organization for blind people. It will set up an accessibility lab to test applications for there accessibility, which will be executed by visually challenged people themselves.

It has also partnered with Bharathiar University, Coimbatore to roll out a program that will train the non-engineering students of the university for software testing. In the first phase of this training about one third of the 104 colleges affiliated with Bharathiar University are participating in the program.

Wipro Infotech eyes large defense deals

Wipro Infotech, a division of the US $6 billion Wipro Limited, serving India and the Middle East market, is aggressively looking at defense sector and is working towards bagging some large deals.

Vikas Srivastava, vice president, Infrastructure Technology Solutions, Wipro Infotech, said “We see that India is high growth region; especially sectors like BFSI and defense. Long decision cycles, inclusion of private players for partnership had been a matter of concern in past, but they have a lot of scope.”

He mentioned that, Ministry of Defense (MOD) is actively looking forward to make the sector more hi-tech, in order to achieve that, the department has floated number of tenders and is in process of inviting more. One of the projects that the company is eying at present, is Tactical Communications System (TCS), which would amount around a billion.

Last year, while addressing an Army-CII seminar on ‘Military Communications: Role of the Industry, Chief of Army Staff  had announced that the department needs to step up communication infrastructure, that includes building Tactical Communication System-2000 (TCS-2000), Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) and Combat Net Radio (CNR).

All this while, there had been an on-going debate in the DoM, whether these projects would be open to private partnership, but the optimism shown by Wipro indicates the outcome. This is indeed a huge opportunity for the Bangalore-based IT bellwether and  other bidder like HCL, L&T, Mahindra Satyam and many more.

Vikas added, “Over a period of time, there has been a great transition in government's modus operandi. They have shown inclination towards public-private-partnership (ppp) model, outright purchases, revenue sharing and defined Service Level Agreements.”